There is a continuous and expanding need for rapid, highly specific methods of detecting and quantifying chemical, biochemical and biological substances as analytes in research and diagnostic mixtures. Of particular value are methods for measuring small quantities of nucleic acids, peptides, saccharides, pharmaceuticals, metabolites, microorganisms and other materials of diagnostic value. Examples of such materials include narcotics and poisons, drugs administered for therapeutic purposes, hormones, pathogenic microorganisms and viruses, peptides, e.g., antibodies and enzymes, and nucleic acids, particularly those implicated in disease states.
The presence of a particular analyte can often be determined by binding methods that exploit the high degree of specificity, which characterizes many biochemical and biological systems. Frequently used methods are based on, for example, antigen-antibody systems, nucleic acid hybridization techniques, and protein-ligand systems. In these methods, the existence of a complex of diagnostic value is typically indicated by the presence or absence of an observable “label” which is attached to one or more of the interacting materials. The specific labeling method chosen often dictates the usefulness and versatility of a particular system for detecting an analyte of interest. Preferred labels are inexpensive, safe, and capable of being attached efficiently to a wide variety of chemical, biochemical, and biological materials without significantly altering the important binding characteristics of those materials. The label should give a highly characteristic signal, and should be rarely, and preferably never, found in nature. The label should be stable and detectable in aqueous systems over periods of time ranging up to months. Detection of the label is preferably rapid, sensitive, and reproducible without the need for expensive, specialized facilities or the need for special precautions to protect personnel. Quantification of the label is preferably relatively independent of variables such as temperature and the composition of the mixture to be assayed.
A wide variety of labels have been developed, each with particular advantages and disadvantages. For example, radioactive labels are quite versatile, and can be detected at very low concentrations. However, such labels are expensive, hazardous, and their use requires sophisticated equipment and trained personnel. Thus, there is wide interest in non-radioactive labels, particularly in labels that are observable by spectrophotometric, spin resonance, and luminescence techniques, and reactive materials, such as enzymes that produce such molecules.
Labels that are detectable using fluorescence spectroscopy are of particular interest because of the large number of such labels that are known in the art. Moreover, as discussed below, the literature is replete with syntheses of fluorescent labels that are derivatized to allow their attachment to other molecules, and many such fluorescent labels are commercially available.
Fluorescent nucleic acid probes are important tools for genetic analysis, in both genomic research and development, and in clinical medicine. As information from the Human Genome Project accumulates, the level of genetic interrogation mediated by fluorescent probes will expand enormously. One particularly useful class of fluorescent probes includes self-quenching probes, also known as fluorescence energy transfer probes, or FET probes. The design of different probes using this motif may vary in detail. In an exemplary FET probe, both a fluorophore and a quencher are tethered to a nucleic acid. The probe is configured such that the fluorophore is proximate to the quencher and the probe produces a signal only as a result of its hybridization to an intended target. Despite the limited availability of FET probes, techniques incorporating their use are rapidly displacing alternative methods.
To enable the coupling of a fluorescent label with a group of complementary reactivity on a carrier molecule, a reactive derivative of the fluorophore is prepared. For example, Reedy et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,632) describe cyanine dyes that are functionalized at an endocyclic nitrogen of a heteroaryl moiety with hydrocarbon linker terminating in a hydroxyl moiety. The hydroxyl moiety is converted to the corresponding phosphoramidite, providing a reagent for conjugating the cyanine dye to a nucleic acid. Waggoner (U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,027) has prepared derivatives of cyanine and related dyes that include a reactive functional group through which the dye is conjugated to another species. The compounds set forth in Ohno et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,990) include cyanine dyes that have a C1-C5 hydrocarbyl linker terminated with a sulfonic acid, a carboxyl or a hydroxyl group. Randall et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,197,956; 6,114,350; 6,224,644; and 6,437,141) disclose cyanine dyes with a linker arm appended to an endocyclic heteroaryl nitrogen atom. The linkers include a thiol, amine or hydroxyl group, or a protected analogue of these residues. Additional linker arm-cyanine dyes are disclosed by Brush et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,808,044; 5,986,086). These cyanine dyes are derivatized at both endocyclic heteroaryl nitrogen atoms with a hydrocarbyl linker terminating in a hydroxyl moiety. One hydroxyl moiety is converted to the corresponding phoshporamidite and the other is protected as a dimethoxytrityl ether.
Cyanine dyes are particularly popular fluorophores and are widely used in many biological applications due to their high quantum yield and high molar absorbtivity. Cyanine dyes are, however, susceptible to photobleaching during prolonged excitation. Moreover, due the rigid planar structure of these compounds, they have a tendency to stack and self-quench. Thus, provision of cyanine dyes having an enhanced brightness and decreased tendency to stack, thereby mitigating the effects of photobleaching and stacking is an important object. Furthermore, cyanine dyes that are hydrophilic are less attracted to other species such as proteins and surfaces, which reduces adventitious binding of the fluorophore and enhances the precision and accuracy of assays and other analyses utilizing cyanine fluorophores. The present invention meets these objects and other needs.